http://www.technologyquestions.com Descriptions, Discussions, and Debates Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:09:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc en hourly 1 http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/18/thanking-influencial-teachers/ http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/18/thanking-influencial-teachers/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:09:00 +0000 Robert W. Heiny tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10987202.post-3648986259324855967 Out of the blue, I received an email from a former student, now dean of undergraduate studies at a major university. He was an excellent student, a former professional musician, and an exceptionally talented golfer who could have gone pro. He told... Full Details

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He told of how he appreciated leaving my office decades ago with more refined questions than the ones he'd asked initially. I hope all teachers and faculty members enjoy learning of former students' memories and progress as much as I have when receiving such updates.

As satisfying is sending an update to a former teacher or faculty member. I've sent updates to several who influenced me and my career. They ranged from my 3rd grade to post doctorate influencers. Those who influenced me the most helped me sharpen my questions rather than gave me answers to questions with which I'd approached them.

In turn, I've tried to pass their techniques along to others and told them so. I hope they find satisfaction with that part of their legacy with which they trusted to me.

I hope you enjoy such satisfactions too.

]]> http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/18/thanking-influencial-teachers/feed/ 1 http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/17/jims-top-three-tips-for-writing-successful-grant-proposals/ http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/17/jims-top-three-tips-for-writing-successful-grant-proposals/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:10:00 +0000 Robert W. Heiny tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10987202.post-732022937237487873 Jim Vanides offers three tips grant proposals writers use to increase chances of receiving funding. He oversees the HP innovations in education grant program for schools. (Here's the formal stuff about him: Worldwide Education Programs HP Global... Full Details

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1. Explain WHY your proposed project/initiative is important, in terms of learning issues and outcomes.

2. Describe WHAT you will do with the technology received through the HP grant.

3. Describe HOW you will measure the impact of this technology on learning.

Even experienced grant proposal writers and reviewers will find his tips useful reminders of why people use advancing technologies in schools: to increase learning.

Thanks, Jim, for taking the time to remind us.

]]> http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/17/jims-top-three-tips-for-writing-successful-grant-proposals/feed/ 0 http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/16/school-choice-school-improvement-what-have-we-learned/ http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/16/school-choice-school-improvement-what-have-we-learned/#comments Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:19:00 +0000 Robert W. Heiny tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10987202.post-8343720190012828035 Join the continuing conversation about school choice and school improvement begun at Vanderbilt University’s recent National Center on School Choice Conference. This online session will review the effectiveness of vouchers and scholarships, parent... Full Details

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What: School Choice & School Improvement: What have we learned? Online Chat

When: November 17, 2009, 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Where: www.edweek.org/go/ncsc

Send in your questions now by e-mail to moderator Marisa Cannata, the Associate Director of the National Center on School Choice.

Register

Check out papers, presentations, and video segments of the National Center on School Choice and School Improvement Conference.

]]> http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/16/school-choice-school-improvement-what-have-we-learned/feed/ 0 http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/16/learning-groups-compete-in-math-chapter-test/ http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/16/learning-groups-compete-in-math-chapter-test/#comments Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:09:00 +0000 Robert W. Heiny tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10987202.post-7257023710172655707 Big Ideas Learning offers a way for groups of middle school learners to compete as they take math chapter tests. I've used versions of such group testing with my fifth grade students. Worked great. While you're on their site, check out their free... Full Details

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Big Ideas Game Closet: Review for You, Big Ideas Learning, April, 2009, 1.7.

]]> http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/16/learning-groups-compete-in-math-chapter-test/feed/ 0 http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/13/schmidt-predicts-internet-in-2014/ http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/13/schmidt-predicts-internet-in-2014/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:02:00 +0000 Robert W. Heiny tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10987202.post-2552767396832190631 Jessica Stillman asked Google CEO Eric Schmidt what the Internet will look like five years from now. 1. Chinese language content will dominate. 2. Users will jump from app to app seamlessly as teenagers do today. 3. Distinctions between TV, Radio... Full Details

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1. Chinese language content will dominate.

2. Users will jump from app to app seamlessly as teenagers do today.

3. Distinctions between TV, Radio and the web will go away.

Google's CEO on the Future of the Web

Video of her full interview.

]]> http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/13/schmidt-predicts-internet-in-2014/feed/ 0 http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/11/technology-for-what-a-preconceptual-sketch-repeated/ http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/11/technology-for-what-a-preconceptual-sketch-repeated/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:11:00 +0000 Robert W. Heiny tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10987202.post-4118561043486895677 Here's a reprint of my archieved commentary "Technology for What? A Preconceptual Sketch?" After rereading it, I find that some progress has been made toward addressing these questions. However, most of them seem to me as continue as unfulfilled... Full Details

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I'm still impressed with the comments made to the 2005 posting. Perhaps you'll comment about those in terms of Tablet and other mobile PCs used in schools today. (Check the original post for links to commenters.)

What do you think? Do responses to these questions in 2005 hold the same validity today? How so? What have you done to help fulfill their implied promise to public school students?

Here's the reprint:

"I've been thinking about this topic for a long time. It seems implicit in many discussions of educators and in blogs, industrial promotions, and conferences that include educational technologies.

Why do we need state-of-the-art technologies for students in schools? This question, asked in the spirit of comity, leads to a trail of unresolved questions.

No one is wise enough or informed enough to answer such questions with unchallenged authority. Yet these questions seem relevant in a world burgeoning with an unrelenting onslaught of gismos, gadgets, and games purported “to educate” someone.

Why do not simple common sense answers compel prompt action to allow all students access to state-of-the-art technologies? For example, the function of a technology is to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of some activity. Student learning is a measurable activity. Personal computers, such as a Tablet PC, can increase a student’s learning rates. (So can direct instruction without the use of advanced technologies.) Why does this reasoning and fact not persuade school decision makers to arrange for the ubiquitous use of advanced technologies by all students in schools? Where is the will (the action, not rhetoric) to assure each individual student the chance to learn as much as that student can learn?

Such questions exist unresolved in the public domain. Answers such as “not enough money” seem inadequate and incomplete. Probably most responses to such questions will be faulty. Yet, when these questions and responses are written, at least they exist for others to critique. Perhaps these critiques will help move discussion toward simple, prompt ways to increase student learning rates.

Background

In 1938, Robert Lynd asked in a series of four lectures as part of Stafford Little Lectures at Princeton University a similarly then provocative question, Knowledge for What? He addressed the emergence of social science from the natural sciences. Among other things, he described influences this emergence was having on formal education.

Lynd’s question, his argument, and subsequent responses helped shape the development of the social sciences and of schools to the extent that they relied on social sciences. It seems logical to update his discussion. This is not a scholarly arcanum, nor a practical proposal. It does inadvertently highlight by inference how school decision makers give priority to many things ahead of maximizing or even increasing each student’s learning rates by using available technologies.

Rationale for Questions

Today, educators live in an environment increasingly influenced by advanced technologies. As educators, we have by tradition and convenience a wide array of discretionary use of vast tangible and intellectual resources in schools. Our total education budgets as well as our annual expenditures on education in the United States exceed the gross national product and annual revenue of most countries of the world. As a result of this discretion, or perhaps to justify it, we claim proficiency in instruction and learning as well as by inference expertise in their management. In our collective judgment, educators do not deem the use of advanced technologies a high priority in schools.

We rely on these claims to decide in each of our classrooms every day specifically what and how we will instruct students before us. Some of us try to create total quality schools with the assumption that leads to some evidence of student learning increases. Others specialize in working with a particular type of student behavior or intellectual content also intended to increase learning.

We use various personal and professional reasons for these judgments. These reasons range from whether our child has a headache at home to whether we give priority over all else to ways for each individual student to exceed politically approved minimum performance expectations for this year.

A relatively few of us assert individual initiative at our personal expense to bring the newest advanced gadget or discovery to class to accommodate our judgments about schooling, students or learning. Many of us appear to follow the leader who makes our job easier or more comfortable.

The public spotlight now focuses on our judgments. Many people consider our decisions and initiatives inadequate and us unprepared to meet our responsibilities in a rapidly emerging global culture. They accept with skeptical politeness ranging to political rejection our collective and individual judgments about uses of technologies in schooling.

Trail of Questions

As educators, we may still try to respond to these questions rather than wait for others who want to give us their answers.

Who benefits personally from educators’ answers to the question, Technology for what?

Do teachers agree that increasing (or maximizing) student learning rates is our top daily priority?

What compelling ideal or practical purpose do state-of-the-art technologies serve in student learning?

Do some interests merely want the newest gismos in schools whether or not anyone needs them?

Which imperatives relevant to novice and scholarly learning drive technology evangelists to promote the use of new technologies, such as use of digital ink and wireless connections, to increase learning?


What would happen if all new advanced technologies were forbidden in schools? Whatever each school has now is all it will have in the future. What results would occur if some authority issued an edict that forbids any new purchases or gifts of any new learning systems in schools? Would the edict make a difference in student academic and intellectual performance? If not, why not?

At least one school-technology specialist in Southern California confiscates forbidden data processing hardware and software (such as Tablet PCs) from teachers and students. Should other schools implement the same policy? Does such action allow students to increase their learning rates?

How long (days, months, years, decades) do teachers have to accommodate the ongoing releases of advanced technologies for student learning? What consequences exist for each student of a teacher who does not initiate an advanced technology sooner?

And finally, so what? What difference does increasing or maximizing student learning make to anyone? Who cares enough to change that consequence by changing his or her priorities and daily behavior to accommodate more advanced technologies promptly?"

Comments to 2005 post:

Alice H said...
Our school district is a very fast growing, well educated and high income district. All new schools were built with the latest technology in mind.
After our newest high school was built, it was touted as a state of the art school. High speed internet, lap top computers, up to date computer labs, TV’s and computers in every room. I am sure there were a lot other bells and whistles, I just can’t remember them all right now. But hopefully you get the point.

The problem we as parents found, was that the teachers didn’t know how to use the equipment, so it wasn’t used. The school district didn’t start sending the teachers to classes until well after these schools were up and running (a year or so later.) By then, the teachers were too busy with everyday school work to find the time to sit down and figure out the technology and how they could incorporate it into their daily school routine.

One example of our problems with the technology was that I found out a year and a half into my son’s second year in a C++ class that the C++ program had never been installed on to the computer, they were learning from a book and writing their programs on paper. When I found out, another parent and I blew a gasket with the school. The program was installed within days. They had it at the school, they just hadn’t gotten around to installing it. The lap tops that they bought sat in storage for a year, I had to also get involved to get them to the class room. The TV’s are used for morning announcements and the computers are used for games during off times.

I believe if technology is done right, it can be an added benefit to a child’s learning environment. Done wrong, it is of no use what so ever in the classroom.

My children grew up with computers in their lives so they are very knowledgeable about them. I do believe Tracy was born with a Tablet PC in her hand. :) (As in Student Tablet PC, Tracy)

12/12/2005 12:38 PM
Judith said...
Thanks for the commentary, which I have to say spurred commentary on my own blog in response:State of the Art vs. State of the Use (http://wccniuesl.blogspot.com.

Your questions made me think. and after 14 years as a school board member, helped me put things into perspective. We spend a lot of money on technology, and relatively little on technology design and development. Most schools are strapped financially, and more and more funding is tied to accountability. I think we need to re-prioritize our tech budgets to make sure that whatever we decide to spend those funds on is used effectively and increases student performance levels. We also have to make sure that teachers know what to do with the technology we purchase.

12/12/2005 1:17 PM
The Tablet PC In Education Blog said...
Thanks for your insightful comments. I appreciate meeting Tracy's mom! Great work, Mom. You should be pleased having such a fine mind in your family. And Judith, I added more of your comments in a separate post about State-of-the-Use of technologies in schools. You offer a reasonable practical approach for school decision makers to consider. I hope they do consider your points.

12/12/2005 5:31 PM
Judith said...
I absolutely agree with Alice regarding teachers not knowing how to use equipment, but it goes even deeper when teachers, and often administrators, don't even know what technologies exist within their own buildings.

As a consultant on lab design, I often went to school districts to guide them with budgets and material selections. One of the most memorable was a school district with the typical very tight technology budget. Somehow they managed to get one brand new computer with Internet hook-up into each classroom. They were considering a second computer in each classroom for the upcoming budget. After seeing how the computers were being used, I suggested that a better use for the money would be projectors so that the entire class could access information together rather than in several small groups. This would add instructional time, since much was lost by having to repeat the process 5 times for every project.

However, something bothered me, and as we were finishing the tour, I asked what was in the boxes that were in the corner of each classroom. The principal didn't know, the district IT person didn't know and the teachers didn't know. I said we needed to know.

Inside EACH classroom was an older version of a computer projector, the kind that fit on top of an overhead projector. I asked how long those boxes were there. The teachers said they had been there for several years. Apparently a former principal purchased those for the school with money from fundraisers, but left before they were delivered. Custodians dutifully placed one in each classroom, but no one knew what they were and why they were there. And worse, the projectors were no longer compatible with the new computers, so they could never be used at the school. An absolute and total waste of thousands of sorely needed dollars, with no value whatsoever for the students.

Stories like this are repeated in school districts across the country. Technology has been in schools for over 25 years, yet we still consider it an 'add-on' to curriculum development. It's time to stop worrying about where we will get money to increase tech budgets, and decide how to make the technology we have more effective as a teaching tool.

12/13/2005 9:16 AM
Rob said...
Deb Shinder's WXPnews recently featured an editorial that centered around a short essay entitled "Handwriting on The Wall for Cursive" by Jodi Upton. It seems that the growing trend is for elementary schools to stop teaching cursive writing as a mandatory part of the curriculum. Like Deb, I was both surprised and saddened to learn of this.

I definitely think that children should be taught handwriting but the underlying issue here is even bigger than that. The ever-increasing emphasis on making computer-use skills a priority at such an early age is what truly disturbs me. That kids now start using computers in kindergarten is a bit stunning. Seems to me that kids need time to just be kids. They need to learn how to interact with the world around them and develop social skills. I'm not yet a parent so maybe I lack a bit of perspective here, but I think kids need to learn to draw or play ball before they learn video games and instant messaging.

Don’t get me wrong, I don't deny that I'm a techno-junkie and I love my PCs, MP3s, TiVo, and other electronic goodies. And I'm all in favor of teaching typing in school - every day I see firsthand how poor keyboarding skills hinders people in the workplace. But I’m tentative about introducing computers into kids’ lives at too early an age. The next generation will be enslaved by technology to a degree that we may not even be able to fully forsee. Computers will undoubtedly dominate nearly every facet of their lives. So, maybe we need to make sure kids have opportunities to learn how to exist in the real world before thrusting them headlong into the inescapable cyber-world.

12/14/2005 7:36 AM

Posted by Heiny, R. Commentary - Heiny: Technology for What? A Preconceptual Sketch The Tablet PC In Education Blog December 12, 2005, 6:53 AM

]]> http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/11/technology-for-what-a-preconceptual-sketch-repeated/feed/ 0 http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/11/game-on-how-long-will-school-learning-help-with-my-life-chances/ http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/11/game-on-how-long-will-school-learning-help-with-my-life-chances/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:09:00 +0000 Robert W. Heiny tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10987202.post-6143435152525131949 Carla Fried's discussion of online life expectancy calculators reminded me of how people in schools might use an online personalized life chances calculator. It would convert educators' generalizations, such as "21st Century Learning," into... Full Details

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A student could use the life chances calculator to estimate the value a lesson and its learning criterion has for increasing or decreasing her or his life chances. That is, how do the 50 minutes of class time to meet X number of learning criteria change his or her advantages, opportunities, and profits outside of school?

I think sufficient empirical data exist to create a proof-of-concept database and then a working model. Hmm, this is a good idea for someone in academia, but more likely a project that an entrepreneur would tackle, yes? I think I see how aLEAP could be an early step toward that calculator. It could be a fun project, perhaps requiring a behavioral researcher and a software designer.

Does anyone know a model refined enought to offer such a forecast, besides well known standardized intelligence and various achievement tests? They were developed for the same purpose, although their uses in schools have not always followed that intent.


Fried, C. Game On: How Long Will You Live?

aLEAP

]]> http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/11/game-on-how-long-will-school-learning-help-with-my-life-chances/feed/ 0 http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/11/do-21st-century-learning-laboratory-increase-student-learning/ http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/11/do-21st-century-learning-laboratory-increase-student-learning/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:37:00 +0000 Robert W. Heiny tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10987202.post-7069450534352549855 Update my post ... Heiny, R. 21st-Century Learning Laboratory... Full Details

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Heiny, R. 21st-Century Learning Laboratory

]]> http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/11/do-21st-century-learning-laboratory-increase-student-learning/feed/ 0 http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/11/tablet-pc-and-home-schooling-revisited/ http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/11/tablet-pc-and-home-schooling-revisited/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:38:00 +0000 Robert W. Heiny tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10987202.post-7675477619322450435 An anonymous commenter sent this for a post I made in 2005. First, thanks for so many of you continuing to read posts in archieves. Second, I usually don't post anonymous comments, but this one deserves an exception. So here it is as part of a post:... Full Details

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"Years later and I'm still looking for decent tablet pc based home school learning on a tablet pc. I have an old tc1000 that I'd like to put Switched on schoolhouse on it and have found limitations in the processor, but work arounds exit. Switched on schoolhouse works fine as most are multiple choice questions with mouse click. There are some input windows and then it generates a execute to ms word or office or notebook or any other program for writing, I've gotten it to work with windows journal too. The problem is 2008 software and the continual need to upgrade existing equipment just to use the software!"

Thanks, Anon, for the update. Have other homeschoolers faced the same problem? Has the price point for new Tablets dropped enough for any of you to use them for homeschooling? It's now substantially lower than Rob Bushway's observation.

Tablet PC and Home Schooling. Posted by The Tablet PC In Education Blog, February 23, 2005, at 5:36 PM. Anonymous's comment made about this post.

Tablet PCs and Personal Freedom to Learn. Posted by The Tablet PC In Education Blog, February 22, 2005, 4:42 PM.

]]> http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/11/tablet-pc-and-home-schooling-revisited/feed/ 0 http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/10/donorchoose-funds-classroom-projects/ http://www.technologyquestions.com/2009/11/10/donorchoose-funds-classroom-projects/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:09:00 +0000 Robert W. Heiny tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10987202.post-7438496746387796974 DonorsChoose.org offers funding for selected school projects. Too much to describe here briefly. A teacher who just received notice of funding pointing me to this site. What tools do your students need to increase their learning efficiency with... Full Details

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What tools do your students need to increase their learning efficiency with Tablet and other mobile PCs? A cart? A projector? License for a software package for a budding astronaut or a struggling special ed student? Submit a proposal for it.

Also, check out the 30% off coupon when you shop at Gap and other participating stores. In exchange for your purchase, the store donates 5% of the sale to DonorsChoose.

The site directs teachers to a special page; use the link in the right hand column on the home page (I almost missed it twice when skimming the site during the first view.)

DonorsChoose.org

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